What is Kiwanis?

Kiwanis International is a global organization of volunteers headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises approximately 8,000 clubs in 96 countries with over 260,000 adult members. Kiwanis emphasizes service to children and youth, both through initiatives intended to improve the quality of life of children around the world, and through their Service Leadership Programs, made up of about 7,000 youth clubs with about 320,000 youth members. Kiwanis members have helped shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor the disadvantaged, and care for the sick. They have developed youth as leaders, built playgrounds, and raised funds for pediatric research.

Objects

Kiwanis clubs and members are guided by six "Objects."

• To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.
• To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
• To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards.
• To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.
• To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities.
• To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

History

The organization was founded on January 21, 1915, in Detroit, Michigan, by Joseph G. Prance (a tailor) and Allen S. Browne (a professional fraternity organizer). In August 1914, Browne suggested to Prance the idea of a business and professional men's club with social and commercial benefits. Prance was sold on the idea, and in 1915 the Kiwanis Club of Detroit, Michigan, was founded.Kiwanis became international with the organization of the Kiwanis club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1916. Kiwanis limited its membership to the United States and Canada until 1962, when worldwide expansion was approved. Since then, Kiwanis has spread to all inhabited continents of the globe.

Its original purpose was to exchange business between members and to serve the poor. The debate as to whether or not to remain a networking organization or a service organization was resolved in 1919 when Kiwanis adopted a service-focused mission. The organization was for men only until 1987 and since then female membership has grown to be 22% of total members. Each year, clubs sponsor nearly 150,000 service projects and raise more than $107 million. In coordination with UNICEF, members and clubs have contributed more than $80 million toward the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), the leading preventable cause of mental retardation.

In 2007, the charitable financial arm, Kiwanis International Foundation, was awarded the top rating by an independent evaluator.

The name “Kiwanis” means “we trade” or “we share our talents” and was coined from an American Indian expression, Nunc Kee-wanis.

Kiwanis Family

Key Club

Kiwanis founded and supports Key Club International. Started in Sacramento, California, in 1925, it is the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the world. Membership in Key Club was 245,000 in 2005.

Circle K

The collegiate version of Kiwanis, which maintains some autonomy from Kiwanis, is Circle K International. The first official Circle K club was chartered in September, 1947 at the campus of Carthage College (then in Illinois). Current membership is over 13,500 members, making Circle K the largest collegiate service organization of its kind in the world.

K-Kids, Builders Club, Aktion Club, Kiwanis Junior

Key Club, Circle K, Builders Clubs and K-Kids are part of Kiwanis Service Leadership Programs, receiving funding and professional guidance from Kiwanis. K-Kids (elementary school), Builders Club (middle school) and Aktion Club (for people who have disabilities) are considered sponsored programs. The difference is that Key Club and Circle K, just like Kiwanis, elect their own club, district, and International officers each year to lead the organization. Kiwanis Junior is part of the European Service Leadership Program, with clubs in Austria, Germany and Italy, and is typically for people ages 18-35. KIWIN'S is exclusive to the California-Nevada-Hawaii district. Before 1987, Kiwanis auxiliary clubs known as KIWANIANNES, made up of wives of members of the men-only Kiwanis clubs, also existed. With the changes that made it possible for women to join Kiwanis clubs, official sponsorship of the auxiliary clubs ended. Some Kiwanianne clubs merged with their affiliated Kiwanis club, while others converted into independent Kiwanis clubs.

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